Stone finish counters

Our building was built in 1994. I believe the original colour scheme was in the pink family. I remember my Mom’s house being very peachy in the 90’s and it being quite trendy. 25 years later, not so trendy or peachy ;-). The original counters are pink, or probably more accurately dusty rose – ick. I can tell you that I have personally removed these very same counter-tops from THREE different homes. Why do I think the next place I buy is going to have them too? I was thinking that it would probably be best to just buck up and pay for new counters. But since that involves ripping them out anyway, then why not try something first, just to see if it works?

I did some pinteresting (that’s a word, right?) and here is where I found my inspiration:

I have seen some painted counter tops in the past, and was less than impressed. But this looks good, so I’m game to give it a try.

I was unable to find the Valspar paint that was used in the post anywhere, so went with this paint: Krylon Make it Stone in charcoal grey.

Before spraying on the actual counters, I did a sample board. I used a piece of MDF that was primed on one side, I painted it on the un-primed side. Here is what it looked like:

Wow! I’m super impressed!

I scrubbed the counters, sanded them lightly with my random orbital sander, and taped them off. Disclaimer: I didn’t worry too much about over-spray as I am planning on removing the plastic covers on the cabinets, tiling the backsplash and updating the floors. If you are do not want over-spray, you would need to do a MUCH better job than I did here. I would suggest using a light plastic drop cloth and painters tape to mask everything off. Because you do NOT want to be wiping off over-spray, see why below!

Before. Dusty rose paint, and cracked dirty cupboards.

One can of paint did a decent first coat on this section of counter, which is approx.3′ x 2′ in size. Here is the first important lesson that I learned. Although the paint went on really well on the MDF board, the counters are substantially more slippery of a surface, and I made the mistake of trying to wipe the over-spray off the wall (which as mentioned above doesn’t really matter anyway) and I accidentally dragged the cloth along the top of the back splash portion, and YIKES – big smudge. So, my advice is tape everything off well, spray it, and WALK AWAY. Do not touch until dry. Luckily I am planning on doing a second coat. I plan to make all of my mistakes in this corner of the counter, and be an expert by the time I get to the main counter area. Now I need to go get more paint, I only bought the one can, in case I didn’t like it. I will probably need about 5 more cans to do the whole counter. They are only $7.99, so it’s not too pricey thus far.

Here is how it looks after just one coat of paint.

First coat. Still lots of pink showing through.

And here it is after the second coat. Looking pretty good 🙂 As mentioned I didn’t worry too much about over-spray. All the plastic coating on the doors is coming off. Walls are being tiled. I only used a half can of paint this time, but I did it at night, so want to take another look when the light is better, and get any areas where the pink is still showing through. Also, it should darken up once I put on the Envirotex , so i’m not too worried at this point. In fact, I’m pretty pleased with the way this is turning out. And so far, the cat hasn’t decided to walk through it. So that’s bonus.